


All those voices in my head

by turquoiserainlilies



Series: Lunar Chronicles - Sense8 AU [1]
Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Forgive Me, Gen, Inspired By Sense8, french cursing?, i don't know i'm cursing in french correctly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 14:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5630320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turquoiserainlilies/pseuds/turquoiserainlilies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Cress pulled her hand away from the glass. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain on her feet, as if something was stamping down on it.</p><p>“Ow!” She jumped back in alarm.</p><p>Cress landed on her bed, bewildered. She turned her head frantically. Her satellite, per usual, was empty. The silence stretched out and consumed her. She’d notice, after all these years, if someone else was here with her.</p><p>Yet she couldn’t shake the distinct feeling that she had company."</p><p>sense8 au</p>
            </blockquote>





	All those voices in my head

**Author's Note:**

> “Some things in our lives are inevitable.” —Wolfgang

The Earth was rising in the distance. Even if Mistress Sybil might reprimand her for this later, Cress couldn’t help but abandon her work and press her face against the glass.

She felt a familiar pang in her chest as the planet made its way into view. After days and days nothing but the black vacuum of space, she needed this splash of colour like life support. Cress drank in the sight  _Earth_. Even if she was in a prison, at least she was in a prison with a view.

She made out the continent of Africa, with its brown and green plains jutting out against the impossibly blue ocean. She traced her fingers across the outline of India, and tried to find the Great Wall beneath the swirls of cloud. It must be raining down there. Not that she had ever seen rain, but she read a lot of complains about it on her portscreens about weather storms. Cress couldn’t fathom why.  Rain, like so many other Earthen concepts, seemed magical.

What she wouldn’t give for a single day, for a single minute, to be anywhere on that big blue and green planet.

Cress pulled her hand away from the glass. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain on her feet, as if something was stamping down on it.

“Ow!” She jumped back in alarm.

Cress landed on her bed, bewildered. She turned her head frantically. Her satellite, per usual, was empty. The silence stretched out and consumed her. She’d notice, after all these years, if someone else was here with her.

Yet she couldn’t shake the distinct feeling that she had company.

Deciding that it was just another delusion brought on by loneliness, Cress turned her attention back onto the Earth. The view won’t last forever. She had to enjoy it while she could.

* * *

“Don’t they teach you etiquettes at guard school?” Thorne murmured.

 _Honestly_ , he made one quip about the guard’s  _obviously_  uncomfortable uniform. The next thing Thorne knew, the guard was pressing his metal boots into Thorne’s foot. This was the sixth guard that he pissed off in just as many weeks. Thorne would be proud of this accomplishment, if it didn’t hurt so damn much.

His imprisonment at the Eastern Commonwealth was going  _absolutely_  fabulous.

The guard patted him down once more before shoving him into his cell. Thorne winked at him. “What are you doing later?”

The guard did not reply.

“It worked better on girls,” Thorne said.

The guard ignored him once more and turned his sight back onto the hallway.

Resigned, Thorne slammed his back against the small cot. His cell was barely the size of the broom closet back on the Rampion.

And what a broom closet that was. He started to reminiscing about the various rooms on his ship, and then realized that he was getting too sentimental. No matter how much he missed the Rampion, Thorne had to focus his energy on a way to get out of this mess instead. Unless he put his mind to it, they’ll be sending his ass to Australia while shipping his baby back to the American Republic.

He’ll figure something out. He always did.

Minutes turned into hours, though Thorne wasn’t so sure he could tell the difference anymore. There were only so many entertainments in a prison cell. He already counted every tile on the ceiling, and attempted to strike up a conversation with every guard. But Emperor Rikan trained them well. No matter what sort of obscenities Thorne threw at them, the guards only replied in silence.

“You’re no fun,” he mumbled after the seventh attempt to tell a knock knock joke. Turns out, those only worked when the other party was participating.

He half-wondered, in his delirious state, what the royal family was doing at the moment. The emperor must’ve been boring, but before his imprisonment, Thorne heard wild rumors surrounding the prince.  _Prince Kai is probably surrounded by babes and booze right now_ , Thorne thought. He wasn’t jealous of the prince. Why would he be, when Thorne’s obviously so much better looking? Yet Thorne couldn’t help but to imagine being Kai, being in the emperor’s palace, which Thorne got a little glimpse of when he was brought in. He had never seen a bonsai tree that tall…

With a jerk of head, Thorne realized two important facts. One, he  _was_  looking at the bonsai tree. Two, he was also looking at Prince Kai.

“Um,” he paused. “Hi?”

“What are you doing here?” Kai asked. He could almost imagine Kai trying to match up a name with Thorne’s handsome face. “Is that the prisoner’s uniform?”

“Uh, no,” Thorne coughed, trying to get some of his old swagger back. Over two hundred days of imprisonment did a lot of damage on his charisma.

“I’m calling security,” Kai said, though he made no move to do so.

“I’m guessing you’re also wondering how you could be in this room and in prison at the same time, right?”

Kai swallowed. “I don’t know what’s going on, but you’ve got to get out of my head,  _now_.”

“Excuse you, Your Imperial Highness!” Thorne cried. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re also cramping  _my_ style. The only one who get inside my head is  _me_.”

“Listen—”

“Thorne!”

He snapped his eyes wide open. The guard was hitting his baton against the wall in an attempt to capture his attention. As Thorne’s eyes focused, he realized that the guard had pursed his lips.

“Stop talking to yourself,” he growled.

“Who else should I talk to?” Thorne said mockingly. “Unless  _you’d_  like to keep me company.”

The guard’s face arranged into an expression that plainly said  _why do I bother_ , and turned away.

Thorne shrugged. He had better things to do with his time.

* * *

“Your Highness?”

Torin was looking worried. Any second now, he’ll spiral into another lecture. Kai shook away thoughts of the captain (how did he know that the prisoner was a  _captain_?) and coughed.

“It’s fine,” he replied, even though it most certainly wasn’t. He’ll have to deal with that later.

“I was just recommending that you send Nainsi to the shop,” Torin suggested. “Perhaps the palace mechanics can find what’s out what’s wrong with it.”

“I already tried that,” he sighed. Maybe it was a good thing that they couldn’t fix Nainsi. His father suspected for years that there might be a Lunar spy in the palace. Kai couldn’t risk anyone finding out what he was up to. “I, uh, I’ll talk another look at her.”

“I am not underestimating your intelligence, Your Highness,” Torin replied. “But I do believe that this is  _slightly_ out of your jurisdiction.”

Kai had to agree. But if the palace mechanic couldn’t fix her, who could?

“We could always replace—”

“No,” he said firmly. Nainsi was his only source of information on Princess Selene. If he lost her, Kai will have to start all over again. “I’ll—I’ll find another mechanic, outside of the palace.”

He couldn’t risk information about the Lunar princess falling into the wrong hands.

Kai won’t lie. He was a little frustrated that it was taking this much time to find the princess. She had to be alive, but wherever Selene was, she was dead set on making sure nobody found out. But how could she stand to watch her people be oppressed? How could she stand to watch as Levana threaten an entire planet? Can Princess Selene use her Lunar gift? Is she really better than Levana if she could?

Kai’s eyes widened.

“Your Highness?”

The palace walls were covered in blood.

“Uh.” He ran a hand through his hair. Something was  _very_ wrong. He couldn’t get rid of the metallic taste in his mouth, or the paranoia churning in his stomach. He had the distinct feeling that everyone was watching him for some reason. Staring at him.

“Your Highness!”

Torin’s face became in focus once more. Kai swallowed the bile at his throat, and straightened his back.

“Are you okay?” Torin asked worriedly.

The moment of sickness was over. Kai took a deep breath. “I’m fine,” he reassured the advisor. “I just…I need a moment.”

He walked out of the room before Torin could get another word in.

The texture of blood was still in his mouth when after Kai drowned himself in three cups of water. He didn’t know how, but he suddenly knew what it was like to be manipulated by the Lunar gift. Even if he was thousands of kilometers away from the moon, he could somehow feel Levana’s stare. He could see her face, twisted in disgust and envy.

He saw her glamor. She was beautiful. She was terrible.

Kai sighed. Anyone would be a better queen than Levana. They had to be.

He had to find a mechanic.

He had to find Selene.

* * *

“I’ll only ask you this one more time,” her stepmother said serenely. Winter almost felt calm. She would breathe easier if her head didn’t hurt so much.

“Winter?”

She tried to look at Levana, she really did, but her eyes kept sliding towards the wall.

“Winter!” Levana brought her palm down on Winter’s cheek—the same one with her scars. Winter cried as she collapsed onto the floor. “Listen to me. Did you or did you not send a comm to a Lunar guard today?”

“It’s just Jacin,” she whispered. “I thought…I thought he might like to know that you’re planning a trip to Earth, since his mistress Sybil will be travelling with you.”

“Ha!” Levana laughed. “And how many times have I warned you against sending out information about the Lunar crown?”

“It’s  _just_ Jacin!” she reasoned. “He—he won’t say anything.”

“Anyone could intercept the message.” Levana paced in Winter’s room. “Don’t you ever  _think_?”

“The raven thought too much. He lost all his feathers.”

“Why do I even bother?” Levana exhaled. Her beautiful face flickered out of focus for a second, like a ripple of static on the portscreen. “I’m leaving to clean up  _your_ mess. I hope you’re happy with yourself.”

And just like that, she was gone.

Winter found a seat in her balcony.

The Lunar lakes were beautiful, especially this time of the month, when it was being lit on fire by the sun. But something nagged at her. The lake, like everything else in this city, wasn’t real. The dome that surrounded the city and pumped oxygen was also her prison.

Levana will ever let her see a real lake.

Or a real mirror.

Or a real snowfall.

Winter closed her eyes, and dreamt of the fire. A large roaring fire that burnt away everything she ever loved. A fire that turned her cousin into a girl shaped pile of ashes, pushed Jacin away, and stole her parents’ last breaths. She should hate it for everything it had done to her, but she knew that it wasn’t the fire’s fault that it was lit.

And when she opened her eyes, she saw a girl whose hair was on fire.

* * *

Scarlet just wanted to eat some apples.

It was a perfectly mundane thing to do on a mundane week night. Her grand-mere was sound asleep in the other room, but Scarlet still had energy left to spare. She was going to slice up a bowl of fruits and then watch melodramatic portscreen shows until she fell asleep on the couch.

And then the most beautiful girl she had ever seen appeared in her kitchen.

She stared. The girl stared back.

Every inch of her skin was flawless, except for her cheek. There were three large scars, like finger nail scratches, that dug into her ebony skin. Somehow, they only made her more interesting. It proved that she was human.

“I’m Winter,” she said sweetly.

“Scarlet,” she replied. She didn’t sound nearly as sweet. “Are you lost or something?” She remembered her manners. “I can point you in the direction of the road. If you need a lift, or—”

Winter paced around the kitchen, and Scarlet’s words faltered. She wasn’t really sure what to do. The girl didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get away.

“I’m not lost,” she smiled, and made her way towards Scarlet. Winter rested her hand just an inch above Scarlet’s arm. “I’m found.”

As her fingertips touched Scarlet’s hoodie, Scarlet felt chillness seep into her bones. Her eyes widened. The sky was blacker than she had ever remembered.

“This is your room.” She knew that. How did Scarlet know that? “It’s bigger than my entire house.”

“Perks of being a princess,” Winter replied. She didn’t sound particularly thrilled.

“Princess?” Scarlet wondered. There were only a few places on Earth still had a monarchy. “Are you Queen Camilla’s daughter-in-law or something?”

“Whyever make you say that?” Winter asked. “Although, she does sound lovely.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Scarlet shrugged. “Well, it’s either that or you’re Prince Kai’s long lost sister, and the former seemed more likely.”

Winter laughed. “I wish I could be on Earth right now.”

“You wish—” Scarlet paused. “ _Oh_.”

“Oh?”

“You’re  _Winter_.”

“Yes, we’ve established that.”

“You’re  _Princess_  Winter.” How could she forget all of the tabloids? Even if Scarlet didn’t pay too much attention to gossip, she could never forget those rare stories that manage to come from the ever elusive Luna. “Are we on the moon?”

“In a way,” Winter said. “And yet we’re also on Earth.”

“How is that possible?”

“How isn’t it?”

Scarlet shook her head. This isn’t happening right now. She isn’t here with some random beautiful girl on the moon, staring out into a Lunar lake and the Artemisia dome. She had never even seen  _pictures_ of the capital, due to the Lunar’s dislike for photographs. Yet here she was, and the view was as clear in her mind as glass.

And Winter.

How could Scarlet suddenly know Winter like she knew her own mind? She saw the princess’s thoughts flash before her own eyes. Winter’s father. Her step-mother. Ryu the wolf. A young girl burnt up into nothing but cinders. A boy with dawn in his hair and eyes like the sunset.

Okay, those were  _Winter’s_ words.

“Who’s Jacin?” she asked, not jealously, not bitterly, of course not.

“A friend,” Winter smiled shyly.

 _Of course_. “A close friend?”

“He’s a Lunar guard,” Winter said. “Not by choice. At least, I hope not. My step-mother finds them as disposable as regolith.”

“Uh, okay?”

“Because there’s an abundance of regolith on the moon.”

“I got that part,” Scarlet frowned. “Your friend Jacin’s a Lunar guard, huh?”

“Under Thaumaturge Sybil Mira,” Winter nodded. “I imagine that he’ll be with her at this moment.”

Scarlet’s vision warped. She was somehow split in three. One that was still in her grand-mere’s kitchen, slicing up an apple. One that was with Princess Winter, trying desperately not to be dazzled by her smile. One that was somewhere that looked like a ship port. There was a boy, with familiar ash-blonde hair. He was being directed by a woman with olive skin and a thin frown.

“Hurry it up,” Sybil frowned. “We’ve got to stop by Crescent Moon before we head for New Beijing.”

“Yes, Mistress,” Jacin replied placidly. He lifted a luggage bag onto the closest ship.

Scarlet inhaled a breath. She could’ve sworn that he was looking at her, but in the next moment there was only Winter.

“What happened?” the princess asked eagerly.

Scarlet wasn’t so sure.

“Do you know somewhere called Crescent Moon?” she asked.

“Scarlet, you realize that when Luna is crescent in the sky, the other part of the moon doesn’t disappear, right?”

“Of course,” she replied. “But, I just…”

Sybil Mira…that was the woman’s name. She knew it as if it was plucked from her own memory. And that man, Jacin Clay…he was as in love with Winter as Winter was in love with him. She never stood a chance, did she?

“Nothing,” she frowned. “I need to go back. Uh, how do I do that?”

“My dear Scarlet friend,” Winter smiled. She was slipping out of view. “You never left.”

* * *

Jacin blinked.

“What are you waiting for?” Sybil frowned. Her glamor grabbed his attention again. “Let’s get on with it.”

The trip to Crescent Moon’s satellite was the same as any other trip. He spent it in silence, while Mistress Sybil fretted and frowned and paced all over the ship. She often complained about the pressure she faced from the queen to deliver. Jacin personally felt that Sybil didn’t really understand the definition of struggle.

Struggle was never seeing Winter.

Struggle was alienating his parents so that they could live.

Struggle was the hunger for the love which he had to guard himself against. Struggle was the craving for Winter’s smile, when he knew that she wasn’t supposed to give to him. Struggle was the starvation, the famishment, the need to eat, to dig his teeth into flesh, to rip the meat in half with his incisors, to—

“Clay!”

Jacin felt his heart pump faster than it had ever been, but he didn’t know why. This was just another average trip to the satellite. Nothing was out of the usual.

Except for the hunger.

“I don’t know why the queen insists on these games,” Sybil was still talking her mouth off. “All these tricks with the plague and Prince Kai. It’ll be easier just to send the wolf soldiers down to take care of the Earthen.”

Jacin didn’t reply. Winter always said that if he had nothing nice to say, he should just swallow the words and let them be digested.

“’Yes Mistress Mira, that sounds like a marvelous idea’,” Sybil said mockingly. “Honestly. What does it take to get a little appreciation around here?”

Jacin gave her a curt “very good Mistress,” before turning his attention back onto the console. He could just leave Sybil here to die on the satellite, and no one would know.

Of course, Sybil would send a comm to Artemisia, and then it was all over for him. But if it meant that the thaumaturge could be trapped here for a few hours, it was almost worth it.

Jacin only refused because Sybil would’ve taken her anger out on that girl, on Crescent Moon. Honestly, neither of them deserved it.

* * *

Wolf wasn’t sure what made him think it was a good idea, but as soon as he saw the look in the man’s eyes, he knew he was wrong.

It one of two things—fear or disgust, or maybe both. He didn’t care to figure out which one was better. Choosing the lesser of two evils was still evil.

He hadn’t eaten in so long. His head was spinning, but that wasn’t why he approached this man. He was having trouble with his hover, and Wolf felt instinctively drawn to help.

 _Help_. That was such an odd concept. He wasn’t taught to  _help_.

“Stay away,” the man sneered.

“C’mon.” It was then that Wolf noticed the girl next to him. “You’re not going to get the next shipment on time if you don’t see a mechanic about this.”

“I’m your favorite supplier,” the man smirked. “I’m sure you can forgive me once or twice.”

“Believe me, you’re nowhere close to being my favorite,” she laughed.

“Sorry Emilie, I forgot. You’re into redheads.”

The girl flushed. She turned back to Wolf. “You think you can take a look, big guy?” She looked at him with vague interest. That was new.

Wolf, who had never even seen a hover before landing on Earth, expertly popped open the trunk. Emilie and the other guy took a step back as Wolf fiddled with the mechanism. He didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but something greater than his mind seem to take over.

After a few moments, he concluded something. “The compressors,” Wolf blurted out.

“I’m sorry?”

“You’ve got to…” Wolf paused, unsure where he was going with this. “Lighten the load on the compressors, so you can give the brakes more…you know what, I’m not really qualified to do this.”

“No, you’re doing great,” said Emilie encouragingly. “A lot more helpful than  _this_ guy. Say, you want to come in for a bite to eat?”

 _A bite_. Wolf’s tongue began to salivate. He took an involuntary step back. He had stayed out too long. It was long past feeding time. The hunger was driving him insane. The hover took his mind off of the pain for a moment, but now the starvation was unavoidable. He was afraid that, should he stay another moment, he’d be tempted to bite the girl’s head off.

“No, it’s okay,” he murmured.

“Are you sure?” Emilie asked. “We’ve got some great  _frites_ in here.”

He didn’t know what it was, but it sounded better than whatever his brothers would have caught.

“It’s okay,” he declined.

It was fun to help, even just for a little while, but the hunger reminded him that helping people wasn’t what he was meant to do.

He ignored the odd look from the man and Emilie, and turned back onto the road. It was time to get back to the pack.

* * *

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Iko said. “But I  _love_  this.”

“Please, don’t.” Cinder gathered up the tools that sprawled on the table. She wasn’t a neat freak. She just found it a lot easier to work when she  _knew_ where her wrench was. “It’s already mortifying enough.”

“I’ll never forget Adri’s face.” If anyone thought that androids couldn’t cackle, Iko just proved them wrong. “You told her to—what was it again?”

The words, which hadn’t occurred to Cinder until the moment Adri told Cinder that she wasn’t providing enough for the family, popped back into her mind. “ _Va te faire foutre_.”

“I didn’t know that you knew French!”

“France doesn’t even really know French,” Cinder shrugged. “Most people just use common. Dunno why I thought of it.”

“Maybe your real parents were French?”

Cinder didn’t like to think of her real parents, because so far they haven’t done much parenting. Maybe they were the lovey-dovey type, maybe they were decent people, but Cinder couldn’t remember. As far as she was concerned, the only parent she had died a few weeks after they met due to Letumosis. Just her luck.

“So is this the famous mechanic shop I’m hearing so much about?”

There was a clatter as Cinder dropped her wrench. She turned up to stare at Thorne. A lot of new voices were shoved in her head over the last few days, and she had no idea where they had come from. All she knew was that one moment she was in her shop in downtown New Beijing, and the other she was in a prison cell.

“Have you met the princess yet?”

 _Princess_? Cinder shook her head. “I’ve met the guard and the soldier. No princess yet.”

“Shame,” Thorne whistled. “She was  _hot_.”

Cinder gave him a look.

“Admittedly a little weird,” Thorne narrowed his eyes. “Not as weird as blondie, of course.”

“Cress isn’t weird.” Cinder rolled her eyes. How could Thorne get inside Cress’s mind and not realize that she was hopelessly in love with him? “You’re just picky.”

“You wound me, truly.”

“Whatever,” Cinder said. “I’ve got a lot of work to do, so if you can just  _not be here_ , it’d be great.”

“I don’t control this sort of thing, sweetheart.”

“Sweetheart?” Iko asked.

Cinder blinked. Thorne and the prison cell disappeared. Now it was just Iko. Although the android was excited when Cinder first talked about these people, and exclaimed that Cinder’s finally caught onto Iko’s sense of dramatics, the enthusiasm soon changed into annoyance. After all, Iko can’t see any of them.

Cinder told Iko she wasn’t missing all that much, especially not those conversations with Thorne.

“You’re not freaking out about this?” Iko asked.

“It makes sense, kind of,” Cinder shrugged. “I don’t know, I just sort of live with it. It’s pretty cool to meet people from all over the world, although some of the Lunars can be a bit…unpleasant.”

She remembered Jacin, who at one point pointed a gun at her. They quickly learnt that harming each other would only harm themselves.

“Why couldn’t you get someone cool in your head?” Iko sighed. “Like Prince Kai.”

“Okay Iko, that’s enough.”

“I’m serious,” Iko pressed. “You said so yourself that new people just keep popping up. Maybe he’ll be next.”

“I’ll tell you when he does,” Cinder humored her. She attempted to rub down the grease from the table, even if she knew it was more than a bit hopeless. Something to distract herself from the soreness of her foot, she supposed.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Iko said.

“Now that we’re done talking about this,” Cinder said. “Can you to Tung’s shop? Maybe they’ll have a damn foot that doesn’t hurt like hell.”

“Sure,” Iko said. “Don’t forget what I said about Kai!”

“Of course not,” Cinder said wryly. She didn’t look up as Iko disappeared from the stand.

Iko might’ve bought onto all that romantic crap from the portscreen dramas, but Cinder never believed in miracles. At least, she didn’t have any prove that her life could be any better. Scarlet, Wolf, Thorne, Jacin, and Cress, despite their interesting company, were getting in the way of her work. Not to mention that Adri would absolutely flip if she found that, in addition to being cyborg, her adoptive daughter also had people talking to her inside her head.

Cinder shook her head. It was best not to think about what’s out of her control. That way, she won’t ever have to get her hopes up about a happily ever after.

She looked down, the sourness of her feet suddenly prominent. The screw through Cinder’s ankle had rusted.

**Author's Note:**

> A sense8 au, with the four otp we all know and love.
> 
> Thorne and Scarlet are bi af.
> 
> I’ve also got a cresswell one written. Might do more depending on reception??
> 
> Sorry about the abrupt ending. It’s actually the first line of Cinder, which is where I wanted to end the fic.
> 
> I did not think I’d be using a Wolfgang quote to start it off, but that guy is full of surprising wisdom.
> 
> This is sort of introduction-y, but I might write more. I love sense8, I love tlc, them coming together seemed inevitable.


End file.
